Effects of Comorbidities on the Elderly Patients with COVID-19: Clinical Characteristics of Elderly Patients Infected with COVID-19 from Sichuan, China

Abstract

Objectives The co-occurrence of chronic diseases in the elderly is a common problem. However, the relationship between comorbidities and the prognosis of elderly patients with COVID-19 was not clear. This study was supposed to describe the clinical characteristics of elderly patients with COVID-19 infection from Sichuan province and the effects of comorbidity. Design A retrospective study. Settings and participants COVID-19 patients from Public Health Clinical Center of Chengdu between December 16, 2019 and February 26, 2020 were included in this study. Patients were divided into elderly group (≥60 years old) and non-elderly group (< 60 years old). Results Elderly patients with COVID-19 indicated relatively higher proportion of comorbidities, and the most common were atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (56.5%), hypertension (43.5%) and chronic pulmonary disease (21.7%). The proportion of severe cases was higher in elderly group than that in non-elderly group (73.9% and 42.2%, respectively, P=0.012). During hospitalization, elderly patients indicated relatively higher proportion of complications, such as shock (21.7%), respiratory failure (21.7%). The proportion of patients with a decreased number of CD8+ lymphocytes (82.6%) and B lymphocytes (77.8%) in elderly patients was significantly higher than that in non-elderly group (48.9% and 44.8%, respectively). All 3 deaths were elderly patients with comorbidities and the cell counts of T lymphocyte subsets, B and NK cells of them were significantly decreased at admission. Conclusions Elderly patients with COVID-19 had a high proportion of severe cases and comorbidities, more likely to show low immune function, and indicate higher proportion of complications.

COVID-19 fatalities by zip codes and socioeconomic indicators across various U.S. regions

“…The elderly population is also significantly more likely to have comorbid health conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, pulmonary disease, and heart disease, all of which have been shown to correlate with increased rates of severe disease and increased mortality in Covid-19 patients. [ [42] , [43] , [44] ]…”

Investigation of a COVID-19 Outbreak and Its Successful Containment in a Long Term Care Facility in Qatar

“…The seven patients reported in this study were all elderly with accompanying comorbidities. As mentioned by Dai et al in their study of the effect of comorbidities on elderly patients with COVID-19 (10), comorbidities make medical decisions more complex and challenging, they often involve multiple medications, and the interactions between drugs and diseases often lead to worse final efficacy, worse prognosis, more adverse reactions, and more medical costs. For the management of elderly patients living in long-term healthcare facilities, Bianchetti et al (11) recommended that monitoring possible contagion among health care professionals should be systematically carried out.…”

Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Obesity and T2D: Literature Review

“…Currently, obesity affects more than 650 million people and 463 million has T2D worldwide [10,11]. Both diseases share a common feature, augmented adiposity associated with a chronic systemic low-grade inflammation which induce dysregulation of the immune system and increasing susceptibility to develop infections [8,[12][13][14][15][16]. The pre-existing chronic inflammation in obese and T2D patients with the augmented inflammatory response against the viral infection seems to increase the susceptibility of these patients for developing severe COVID- 19.…”